The Weekend in Review - Game Updates

This past week, some of our Clan teams were battling hard on the pitch, fighting the good fight.As usual, our great coaches have summed up the performances. Let's take a closer look together at the performance of your fave Clan team on the field!

AC

The Clan took on the Druids in a free flowing, entertaining match on Thursday night with the home side coming away with a 44-28 win.The Clan raced out to an early lead with a couple of well taken tries to Nate Groenewold and Mike Adibe. The Druids hit back a couple of times with tries of their own, but the Clan took a 28-15 lead into the break. Unfortunately, the second half was all one way traffic with the Druids capitalizing on some poor option taking and sloppy skills from the Clan to score 29 unanswered points. The old cliche of "a game of two halves" certainly rang true.

Mike Adibe again showed how dangerous he is with the ball in hand, scoring 3 tries in the 1st half. While Nate Groenewold had a very strong game all round.

Back to the training pitch and back to the drawing board.

E3

In another display of shear and utter machismo, the manly men of our 3rd Div side took the Pirates field by storm on Friday night (literally).With a plan of attack that weighed heavily on grit and patience on offence, and attacking pressure on defence, the crew dished out a punishing first quarter, worthy to rival any high-seas wartime fable. Though the Pirates believed themselves to be the larger, the burlier, the hairier of men, the Clan made but maids of them with strong pushes in the scrum and mauls, brutal tackles behind their own gain line off the breakdowns, and the combined hairy mass that was Kal and Cole.Special credit must be noted in the notes for the noteworthy performances of Corey Tremblay, Gerry Langford, Brenin Starreveld, and big ol' Chris Forbes for their heroics in those defensive showdowns. You'd think those boys had some ancestral grudge against sea-folk as they attempted to grind their enemies into the ground. And with the mass of swashbucklers held into the breakdown areas, the lads were able to move the ball freely among the more hair-free of our men, namely Jahvon Laing, who ran in for a couple good scores.Then, when we had the enemy clearly rattled, in an outburst of sensitivity for our down-beaten foes, we relaxed and allowed the Piratesto feel good about themselves and score a couple points. Thus began the back and forth game of cheering and swearing that defined the rest of the game as penalties became a problem and fantastic series were capped off by dropped balls or turnovers. Nevertheless, through shear grit (and the last quarter back row lineup of Stuart Foote, Brian Trembly, and Sean Murphy) we were able to scratch our way to a game winning try and a victory for the ages, with a final score of 27-21.

Noteworthy performance by the hairless crew go to Arnold Yu who read the game well and managed his crew to the fullest, Jahvon Laing who doesn't really pass because he doesn't need to because no one can catch him or tackle him, and Spruceyfor his open field runs and offloads and for always showing the ref that he is offside by waving his hands at him (very sporting Sprucey).

All hands on deck for the next little bit, as we have a lot to work on before we drink from our cup!

PREMIERE WOMEN

This past Thursday, the Clanswomen sought to avenge their earlier loss against the Druids. A questionable non-call by the referee led to an early try for the Druids, but the ladies were determined to fight back. Starting with a maul off a lineout that would make any forward proud, Megan Manson was able to score a try with a pick off of a breakdown. Later in the half, both the Clanswomen wingers, Garner Mori and Jinnifer Valdez, were able to score through excellent support running.

The second half marked more dynamic play and stalwart defence from the Clanswomen but unpredictable reffing and some bad bounces that the Druids were able to capitalize on led to a 24-15 score with just over 10 minutes to play. The ladies fought hard but were only able to punch through once. The score was 24-20 when the final whistle went.

This game marks a huge improvement for the Clanswomen who were on the wrong side of a 70-17 blowout by the Druids last week. In this game the ladies clearly began to gel on defence and were able to corral the wide Druids attack through most of the game. Notable performances came from Kara Haslam in the forwards and Nicole Shaver in the backs. Both of whom were singled out for amazing attack and defence.